


Nighttime Studying

by Mariana_Trench_Coat



Category: TMNT - Fandom, TMNT AU - Fandom, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types, tmnt 2k3 - Fandom
Genre: Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 19:20:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18879592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mariana_Trench_Coat/pseuds/Mariana_Trench_Coat
Summary: This is just a short piece I wrote for a tmnt au I'm working on. The au draws from a number of tmnt universes, but it's most directly based on the 2k3 series. In this au, Shadow Jones is Casey Jones 14 year-old adoptive little sister, training to become a kunoichi with the turtles. She still has a lot to learn...and some schoolwork to catch up on.Donatello gets frustrated at a tech-related conundrum, but a new addition to his family helps him out.





	Nighttime Studying

Donnie couldn’t remember the last time a tech problem was giving him this much trouble. He had dug as deep as he could into the Foot Tech Ninja helmet, but nothing seemed to make much sense to him. Every layer he unveiled only posed a different, weirder mainframe than the last. He rolled his computer chair back and rubbed his eyes in an effort to erase the dots and symbols burning in his retinas. 7:00 am the clock read. He moaned. He knew his brothers weren’t going to be happy knowing how long he stayed up for this stupid problem. He let his arms fall to his sides, but as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t admit defeat. He had to figure this out. Who else would?  


Donnie pulled his chair back up to the desk and flopped his head right down onto his notes. At this point, he was willing to try anything. Including getting those oh-so-desirable answers through osmosis. He exhaled softly and closed his eyes for a moment, but it just felt like a drag. He turned his cheek to the graphite, ignoring the unseemly smear it left on his chin. He knew he couldn’t sleep. Not without making some progress. At least a little.  


April, Leatherhead, Sydney…Donnie was constantly surrounded by amazing scientists and engineers. Yet he knew his brothers counted on him the most for technology. He couldn’t let up, not for a second. He had to know every aspect of every system thrown their way, otherwise, the next time Leo comes up with a plan, it might not work. “I can’t do that” was barely ever an option. Sometimes he wanted to quit it all. Sometimes he forgot why he even liked the stupid junk in the first place. But he couldn’t stop. Donnie couldn’t let a single iota of understanding slip through his fingers with this sort of tech. And even though that love for the art and complexity of machinery would always come roaring back at some point, he’d be lying if he said it didn’t drive him a bit crazy. Just once he’d like to say, “How am I supposed to know?” But he knew this was his responsibility. He could never take that lightly.  


He took a deep breath and dragged his head off the table, unsticking his cheek from the notes. When he opened his eyes, ready to face the dumb conundrum again, he ended up facing something entirely different.  


“Donnie?” A low but urgent whisper came. Donnie let out a huge gasp at the pair of sudden, wide brown eyes boring holes into his own, bleary ones. He nearly leapt right out of his chair before he recognized the worried and surprised face. “Donnie, hey! It’s me!”  


“Oh...geez. Shadow.” He exhaled dramatically. Shadow was kneeling next to his desk with a book folded in her arms, looseleaf pages sticking out of it. “You gave me a heart attack - what are you doing up?” For a moment, he thought he was dead. Yet for that same moment, he was grateful for the respite. At least if he was dead he wouldn’t have to look at that stupid helmet again.  


“I have to go to school soon, brainiac. And I need help with homework.” She threw open the book over his desk, with a loud enough thunk to keep Donnie alert. “What are you doing up? Aren’t you tired?” She asked, leaning over the table and peering at him closely.  


“Nope, not anymore.” Donnie replied. “Hard to pass out peacefully when a ninja sneaks up on you.” He added with a resigned smile. Shadow grinned at the mention of her newfound title and swayed back.  


“That means I’m gettin’ better! But seriously, why were you still up?” She pressed on. Donnie just shrugged and pulled her math book over to him.  


“Just a tech thing. What did you need help with?” He opened up her homework, put aside the viciously gnawed-on pencil that rolled out, and was greeted with an old friend: Algebra. Shadow growled at the sight of it, like a cat who’d just been reintroduced to the bath. She jumped right into describing her dilemma.  


“It’s just _this_ one. This one - _stupid_ \- one. Like, look - ” She directed Donnie to the source of her frustration, problem #16. “I got here, but, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now? How am I supposed to get the x by itself if it’s stuck like that?” She shoved the book at him and leaned back, arms folded. Donnie glanced up at her and noticed just how messed up her hair was, how red her eyes were. He couldn’t know for certain, but he was willing to bet she’d been slaving over this homework for at least a couple hours. And a couple hours too harshly. He looked down at the problem that was driving her mad.  


Easy.  


His eyes traveled to the work she’d done. Shadow had started off reasonably enough but it quickly became clear when she ran out of fuel, flip-flopping variables that didn’t need to change, multiplying where she shouldn’t have been. In the end, she’d driven herself into working a problem way more difficult than the first one. He took another look at her face, the anger in her eyes at the dumb math problem. He wanted to laugh at how funny her face looked, scrunched up like that, but reminded himself of the pain that wrought it. Donnie turned around and took his toolbox off a work stool and set it beside him.  


“Here, take a seat. Let’s start at the beginning.” While she eagerly sat beside him, he took a blank piece of paper and her chewed-up number 2 and copied the question. “You were right, here, but you shouldn’t be trying to switch variables around every time you see them. You have to know what you want to get first. So….”  


Donnie went on to walk her through the problem in its entirety, taking her through each step and only moving on when she repeated what he’d just explained and repeated it in a way that made sense. He even went back to her original question and demonstrated a way to back herself out of it and back to where she needed to be to get the real answer. And with every vigorous nod of her head and every description of the solution, Donnie’s confidence started trickling back. It didn’t take much for Shadow to notice the stress in his voice dissipating, his motions less tense. Then they reached the end of the problem.  


“So you got it?” He asked. She nodded, turning the book towards her. “Yep, I think I’ve got it now.” She took a quick glance at her phone. 7:14. She shifted the book back to him and pointed at a new question. “But I don’t really get this one either. Can you just, help me with that one too?”  
As expected, Donnie leapt right back in, going through step-by-step, his tone getting softer and smoother. Finally, he let out a long yawn and gave a quick shake of his head to wake himself up. 7:29.  


“Oh, crap! I gotta get to school.” She shoveled all the notes into her workbook while Donnie sat, rubbing his heavy eyes.  


“Alright. You get it now?” He mumbled.  


“Yeah! Thanks Don. You’re a lifesaver. See ya!” She sprinted out of his lab, barely taking the time to sling her book bag over her shoulder. “OH, tell Mikey that I borrowed his skateboard!” She called back, snagging the skateboard from its place on the wall.  


“Shadow, I’m probably gonna be asleep by the time he wakes-” Donnie said with a slight chuckle, but Shadow cut him off as she flew out the entrance.  


“That’s the idea!” She laughed.  


Donnie shook his head and scoffed. He listened to the familiar bang of the entryway shutting behind her before deciding it was time to hit the hay. He stretched out his arms and spun his chair around to get up. Not ten steps later, he had his head on the pillow. Sleep didn’t seem so hard now. 

Shadow sped as fast as she could to the school gates, and even faster when she heard the 5-minute bell go off. She practically fell off Mikey’s skateboard at the entrance and threw it on her back in one, swift movement. It knocked her workbook out of her bag and she cursed as she scooped the papers back up. She reached the paper she’d scribbled her work on when Donnie taught the second problem to her. Then she picked up the next paper, with the same problem on it. But it was solved by her the night before. Without hesitation, she crumpled it up, carefully slid the notes she took from Donnie into her bag, and raced to first period.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this! I'll probably edit this a bit in the future. Let me know if you catch typos :)


End file.
